The Sound of An Empty Existence Oneshot
by KagoKyoko
Summary: She loved him, he ignored her. When he realized the truth, it was too late. She was gone with someone else. CherenxOC NxOC some CherenxBianca. Rated T for safety.


**The Sound of an Empty Existence**

_Sorry people! Had a bit of writer's block for like… a while. So now, I have gotten a Cheren x OC/N x OC oneshot up there. Hope you all like it! You know what to do, read and review! Btw, there will be some Cheren x Bianca in the middle of all this._

_Also, I only own my OC, Neko. All other references go to the people who created Pokémon. Nobody's Listening is the song used, which belongs to Linkin Park._

"_**Yo, peep the style and the kids checking for it  
>The number one question is how could you ignore it"<strong>_

_***Flashback***_

"_Ne! Cheren – san, let's go outside! I am so bored…" Neko complained, like she always did when there was nothing to do at her own house. Cheren and Bianca, who both lived nearby, gave her the ultimate entertainment during these times, for her simple, 4 year old mind to understand. Her brown hair went down to her waist, crystal blue eyes shining in a manner worthy of her childish nature. Her wire frame glasses only enhanced the effect. "Sorry, Neko. I have to look into something today, tomorrow I might be open." Cheren just tilted up his glasses and stared at the book in his hands, laying down on his stomach, not even tilting his raven blue, shoulderish length hair covered head to give her the eye contact he normally did. Neko frowned, her eyes turned to the floor in utter sadness. "OK… she murmured that, more to herself than to him, as it seemed that he paid no heed to the brunette, who happened to be 2 years younger than him. "Bianca should still be able to play with you though. Why don't you hang out with her today?" he looked at where she had stood, only to find out she had climbed out his window. A habit Neko showed when she was upset._

"_**We drop right back in the cut over basement tracks  
>With raps that got you backing this up like<br>Rewind that we're just rolling with the rhythm"**_

_Looking at his house from the forest surrounding Nuvema Town, she kept the tears hidden perfectly, in a way that no one else could see them. _"How could he forget…? That it was my birthday today…?" _Being little, she found birthdays to be very important. Neko looked away from his house and decided to play with the shiny Pokémon she had run into last year. She had been playing with them whenever Cheren turned down her request to play. "Hey guys!" she said, greeting each one as they came up. _"At least some people care about my being there." _She thought to herself as she played with them until late in the night._

_***End Flashback***_

"_**Rise from the ashes of stylistic division  
>With these non-stop lyrics of life living<br>Not to be forgotten but still unforgiven"**_

" Ne, Cheren," Neko looked at her composed friend/crush who stood across the room, leaning against the wall with arms crossed. "Hm?" He replied, barely making any changes to his stance except that he opened his eyes. "How long will Bianca take? I am getting bored…" Neko whined like she always did. She always would. Her childish look on life brought a smile to people's faces, and she always wanted that to happen. When she looked at Cheren now though, she saw a man who was power obsessed. One that didn't smile, not even in the most humorous of times. "Who knows?" Cheren simply shrugged while stating that fact. Neko felt her heart drop. He used to smile at her complaints and give her a hard time about it.

"Neko, when will you grow up?" Cheren stated with his eyes, for the first time in a while, boring into hers. Neko lost all thoughts that were in her mind, an empty crevice forming in her chest. It was small now, but who knows? The fault may get worse.

"_**But in the meantime there are those who wanna talk this and that  
>So I suppose that it gets to a point where feelings gotta get hurt<br>And get dirty with the people spreading the dirt"**_

Going to Accumula Town, as short as the trip was, kept Neko more silent than anyone knew to be possible. Her childish pranks didn't show once, and her once bouncy blue eyes became a desert that could not be crossed, emotions hidden within. Cheren did not notice, but Bianca did. For a long time, she had known about Neko's crush on Cheren. Bianca did like Cheren, too, but only as an older brother. She could tell that Cheren had gotten on Neko's case about being childish, again.

After hearing Ghetsis's speech in the town square, a boy named N came up to Neko, and (supposedly) talked to her Pokémon. After a short battle, with her shiny, yellow Torchic as the winner of the fight – the only one fought in the fight mind you – N came up and kissed Neko's right hand. "We will meet again my sweet…" he murmured, as he walked away, leaving all of them stunned. Even Cheren was speechless. Neko was the first to recover. "I'm going to catch some more Pokémon; I will meet you guys after the first few gyms. Little did she know, how dangerous her encounters with N would become…

Meeting him again, he only wanted to hear what was troubling her. Something she did not expect from anyone anymore… not after the pain she had endured over the past several years.

"_**It goes  
>(Tried to give you warning but everyone ignores me)<br>Told you everything loud and clear  
>(But nobody's listening)<br>(Called to you so clearly but you don't want to hear me)  
>Told you everything loud and clear<br>(But nobody's listening)"**_

Seeing N at the Ferris Wheel in Nimbasa City gave her a feeling of understanding, like she could talk about anything to him. The feeling of safety he gave her, N was the first person in a long time she felt she could trust. Cheren was the only other one that had made her feel this way, yet that had been 12 years ago. The Cheren she knew was gone. Replaced by a ruthless, coldhearted man who wanted power above all else. That was the part that Neko hated, that power took priority over his friends, even the people that had known him best, didn't know him anymore.

"_**I got a heart full of pain, head full of stress  
>handful of anger, held in my chest<br>And everything left's a waste of time  
>I hate my rhymes, but hate everyone else's more"<strong>_

"N… Can I tell you something?" Neko had never told anyone except Bianca about her feelings for Cheren. She had never felt that she could trust anyone else until now. "Of course. I am willing to listen to anything you want to share." The answer N gave was instantaneous. Something she wished Cheren would have done for her. "I have a crush on Cheren… my friend that you saw with me in Accumula town." N tensed slightly at this. "But… it seems like he has become a different person. One that craves power over even his friends…" Neko looked out the window of the Ferris Wheel as they stopped at the top. "It feels like… I just don't know what to do…" turning down to her soft, apricot colored hands, the tears she had worked so hard to hide, ended up coming down, in front of a person she barely knew, yet she trusted him as much as she trusted Cheren at one point. N cradled her in his arms, waiting for her to finish. "Depending on how things turn out… you must remember, if you need me, I will drop everything and come for you. I promise." His soft and caring words sent her into a new wave of tears, so they took another round in the Ferris Wheel, so that no one saw her crying.

"_**I'm riding on the back of this pressure  
>Guessing that it's better I can't keep myself together<br>Because all of this stress gave me something to write on  
>The pain gave me something I could set my sights on"<strong>_

After she got the bolt badge from Elesa, Cheren once again challenged her to a battle. His Pokémon **had** become stronger, yet, she knew how he thought, and outmaneuvered him every time. Cheren looked at her with resentment as her once shiny Torchic - now a shiny Blaziken - came over to her and gave her a high five. Catching his eyes in hers, she showed him a bit of sadness in hers, to let him know that she thought he should think about his actions a little. Cheren ignored her, like she was empty space that he wanted filled with power, leaving out his friends. "Hey." The champion, Alder, came up and gave a short, yet thoughtful chat with Cheren. "When you become strong, what will you do then?" that question, through Neko's eyes, gave Cheren the biggest insight to his own interests. Leaving him to his thoughts, she headed for Driftveil City, to get her fifth badge.

"_**Never forget the blood sweat and tears  
>The uphill struggle over years the fear and<br>Trash talking and the people it was to  
>And the people that started it just like you"<strong>_

After earning herself the badge at Icirrus City, she ran into N once again. "Neko-chan," he started looking into her eyes with a need, for what she didn't know. "Find Reshiram, and we will face off in a duel of fate, in whose views are right." N climbed onto Zekrom, and flew off into the distance. Where to? No one knew. "Neko," Cheren's eyes, now completely heartless in Neko's perspective, bore into hers as he walked over and whispered in her ear, stopping as he passed. "I won't lose to you." The attitude he showed her had lost all the respect she had for him. By this point, it wasn't much. _"So, that is what he thinks of me…"_ Neko looked at her feelings once more. The feelings she had for Cheren had diminished, while her feelings for N skyrocketed.

Now she understood. If Cheren chose to leave, then she should just let him go.

_And she did, as painful as it was._

"_**(Tried to give you warning but everyone ignores me)  
>Told you everything loud and clear<br>(But nobody's listening)  
>(Called to you so clearly but you don't want to hear me)<br>Told you everything loud and clear  
>(But nobody's listening)"<strong>_

Receiving Reshiram from the fight with N, she looked back at the moment in Driftveil, where she finally realized why she had lost.

_***Flashback***_

_Running to the research lab in the forest just beyond Driftveil to show them the Deerling of Autumn, she heard the sounds of voices in Mistralton cave. As Neko looked in, her heart was almost in her throat, the sight of Cheren and Bianca kissing. Before they could notice that she was there, she hightailed it out of there breaking out into sobs once she ran into N, quite coincidentally. "Neko-chan, what's wrong?" N's worried voice, awoke her thrashed brain and heart. "… He *sniffle* likes my friend Bianca… and not me… *sniffle*" N tightened his embrace for security. "I already told you," he started with a sad smile and a sincere glint in his chocolate colored eyes. "If you need me, I will drop everything and come for you. I promise." Once Neko stopped the rivers on her face, N gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "I'll be waiting…" he whispered, licking her earlobe gently. Only after he left, did she let out the gasp she had wanted to release when he licked her ear. She touched her cheek where he kissed her, then turned to walk through Chargestone Cave._

_***End Flashback***_

"_**I got a heart full of pain, head full of stress  
>handful of anger, held in my chest<br>Uphill struggle  
>Blood sweat and tears<br>Nothing to gain  
>Everything to fear<strong>_

_**Heart full of pain, head full of stress  
>handful of anger, held in my chest<br>Uphill struggle  
>Blood sweat and tears<br>Nothing to gain  
>Everything to fear<strong>_

_**Heart full of pain"**_

"Neko, come with me." N requested of her. Neko's eyes grew wide. Leave Unova? The only home she knew? "I know it is sudden, but I really don't want to leave you behind where you won't be happy." He explained, a small blush creeping onto Neko's cheeks as she finally got the message through her oblivious and dense skull…

"_N loves me?"_

The evidence was there, yet it had taken her so long to figure it out. Ghetsis sat on the floor, incredulous at the fact that N liked _any_ human, not to mention his complete opposite in terms of mind. "You could help me, too." He added. "You could help me understand others, and what they feel as well." Extending a hand to her, he finalized his question to the slightly dense brunette. "I love you… Neko-chan. Will you come with me, as I leave Unova to find my place in this world?" Neko stared at him. Then at her Pokémon, who looked at her with the desire to go wherever she chose to go.

"_**(Tried to give you warning but everyone ignores me)  
>Told you everything loud and clear<br>(But nobody's listening)  
>(Called to you so clearly but you don't want to hear me)<br>Told you everything loud and clear  
>(But nobody's listening)"<strong>_

Neko looked at N's hand, and started to reach out to it with her own. Just before they touched, "NEKO, DON'T GO!" could be heard from the stairs, as Cheren came up, panting to catch his breath from the long climb. "Neko… please…" Cheren, for the first time in 12 years, cried in front of Neko. When she looked at him, the only feeling she felt was hurt and loneliness. "Neko." Cheren held his gaze with hers, as he asked her the purest question out of the blue, usually calm eyes, full of sorrow, "Why are you going to go with _him_?" he spat the last word out with resentment, as if it would kill him to speak it again. Neko turned to face Cheren, giving him an answer that she never dreamed she would say to anyone. "Just for the record, I love N. Damn it, if you question why, here's why! He has stayed by my side this entire time. He supported me through all the badges, hell he even believed I could be the second hero." She said this composed, the same way that he himself had treated her these past several years. Looking back, Cheren finally realized something that had been obvious, yet he had ignored. Neko had loved him. Yet he had pushed her away. Now he had lost her to a man he despised, the man who he thought didn't know anything about her. Yet, N knew Neko better than anyone. Neither Bianca or Cheren could compete, she had trusted N with everything, and they had limited knowledge about her feelings. "Sorry, Cheren. This is goodbye." She walked over to N letting Reshiram out of her poke ball to glide next to Zekrom. Turning around, only to see that Bianca had joined the group, along with the other gym leaders. Neko pulled out the cat necklace that Cheren and Bianca had given her on her second birthday. As she was 2 years younger than them, her being 16 now and they now were 18, she had received that without a good memory of it. The memory didn't matter to her anymore. She wanted to put the past behind her. Neko had kept the pendent for the exact reason of remembering the past. Now, she gave that back to them. Tugging the chain in order to break it off of her neck, she tossed it over to Cheren, successfully getting him to catch it. "Sorry, guys. See ya, at another time and place." Neko put her brown hair in a loose ponytail, and flew off with N. She rode Reshiram while N rode Zekrom. Leaving Cheren behind, she felt a great amount of stress lifting off her shoulders, as she played with N, not able to contain her excitement as they reached the Hoenn region.

_A place for a new beginning. To start her life fresh, and prepared with her shinnies on her side. N and Neko. To stay together and never leave one another. That was the fate they chose, and the one they followed._

"_**I got a heart full of pain, head full of stress  
>(Nobody's listening)<br>handful of anger, held in my chest  
>(Nobody's listening)<br>Uphill struggle  
>Blood sweat and tears<br>(Nobody's listening)  
>Nothing to gain<br>Everything to fear  
>(Nobody's listening)<strong>_

_**Coming at you from every side**_

_*Fin*_


End file.
